The unfortunate Enguerrand de Marigni, brother of
the archbishop, and lord treasurer under Philip the
Fair, was the founder of this church. At the
instigation of the king’s uncle, Enguerrand was
hanged without trial, and his family experienced the
most bitter persecution. His body, which had
at first been interred in the convent of the Chartreux,
at Paris, was removed hither in 1324; and his descendants
obtained permission, in 1475, to erect a mausoleum
to his memory. But the king, at the same time
that he acceded to their petition, added the express
condition[32], that no allusion should be made to Marigni’s
tragical end. The monument was destroyed in the
revolution; but the murder of the treasurer is one
of those “damned spots,” which will never
be washed out of the history of France.—­Charles
de Valois soon felt the sting of remorse; and within
a year from the wreaking of his vengeance, he caused
alms to be publicly distributed in the streets of Paris,
with an injunction to every one that received them,
“to pray to God for the souls of Enguerrand
de Marigni, and Charles de Valois, taking care to
put the subject first[33].”—­In the
church at Ecouis, was formerly the following epitaph,
whose obscurity has given rise to a variety of traditions:—­

Other inscriptions of the same nature are said to
have existed in England. Goube[35] supposes that
this one is the record of an incestuous connection;
but we may doubt whether a less sinful solution may
not be given to the enigma.

* * * *
*

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 28: Andelys is also called in old deeds
Andeleium and Andeliacum.]

[Footnote 30: Cotman’s Architectural
Antiquities of Normandy, plate 15.—­In
a future portion of his work, Mr. Cotman designs devoting
a second plate exclusively to the oriel in the east
front of this building.]

[Footnote 31: Monstrelet, Johnes’ Translation,
II. p. 242.]

[Footnote 32: The letter of this stipulation
appears to have been attended to much more than its
spirit for at the top of the monument were five figures:—­Our
Savior seated in the centre, as if in the act of pronouncing
sentence; on either side of him, an angel; and below,
Charles de Valois and Enguerrand de Marigni; the former
on the right of Christ, crowned with the ducal coronet;
the other, on the opposite side, in the guise and
posture of a suppliant, imploring the divine vengeance
for his unjust fate.—­Histoire de la Haute
Normandie, II. p. 338.]